The Newcomer

The burr under my saddle

I'm going to write this while I still have a burr under my saddle-or while I'm still alive to tell the tale.

One cannot drive in this community without wondering how some people were able to get driver's licenses.

My pet peeve this week involves the drivers who either do not stop for pedestrians in crosswalks or who proceed when walkers are only a quarter or halfway across the street. The law is definite-drivers must allow pedestrians to completely clear the crosswalk before they proceed.

That isn't happening here.

And I'm getting tired of having drivers in cars behind me sit there honking at me to get going while I am waiting for a pedestrian to safely complete the crossing.

I'm also tired of having to leap out of the way-which I have had to do at least four times-when some maniac driver tries to share the same crosswalk space I'm occupying.

This isn't just a Sunnyside problem.

This type of traffic violation was the subject of a national television program quite awhile ago. Intersections were staked out by a camera crew, which then photographed violation after violation, with drivers cutting corners and nearly clipping the walkers or zooming behind and in front of them without letting them clear the crosswalk.

All of those violations are happening here in Sunnyside every day.

It hasn't been so long ago that I actually followed a driver who had pulled out around my stopped vehicle to speed across an intersection at which I had stopped to allow a child to cross in front of me. She missed the kid by a foot or so, too close for my comfort.

When I caught up with her at a drive-in, I pulled my car in front of hers so she could not drive away while I had a little heart-to-heart talk with her. She wouldn't answer me when I asked her if she had seen the child. She didn't seem at all concerned when I told her how close she had come to knocking off one of Sunnyside's finest specimens of kid-hood. In fact, she seemed bored with the whole episode and puzzled at why I would care.

Well, I do care! And I'm sick and tired of irresponsible drivers that seem to be in such a big hurry to get to the next corner that they can't be courteous...and obey the law!

O.K. That's my gripe for the day, and I'm sure I'll feel better...until the next road hog threatens the life of some unsuspecting pedestrian.